This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

It is a rare occasion when the Toronto media is more preoccupied with the opposing team’s coach than documenting every twitch and snort and spit-blob emanating from the Maple Leafs during the morning skate on game-day.

But this, of course, was Patrick Roy, the most entertaining off-ice thing to hit the NHL since Tampa Bay introduced scantily-clad cheerleaders to the sport a dozen years ago — if you go for that kind of thing.

Roy is no flash-in-the-pan sideline gimmick, although there might indeed by some gimmickry to go with the glitz that he’s brought to his job as novice big-league coach with the Colorado Avalanche.

This is a team that’s missed the playoffs three years in a row, four times out of the last five seasons, and was bottom-feeder in the Western Conference when the lockout-shortened schedule wound to a close in April. It’s been a long time since the once formidable Avs led any sports newscast or grabbed front page coverage in home-town Denver, much less rival cities around the continent.

The arrival of Roy — four-time Stanley Cup winner, playoff MVP, Hall of Famer and St. Patrick as he was worshipped in Montreal before he vanished over the mountains, all pouty and temperamental — to prowl behind the bench as head coach has changed the channel, switched the screen back to hockey in the Mile High City and the notice that others are taking.

Article Continued Below

True, it would be hard not to notice what unfolded in Roy’s debut last week, that screaming match with Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau, Roy so over-the-top hissy that he twice pounded the glass partition between the teams’ benches, pushing glass and stanchion right over — rather an impressive show of strength.

For his antics, Roy was fined $10,000 by the league.

Welcome back, Patrick.

“Things like this happen sometimes,” Roy told a massive media scrum in the Air Canada Centre corridor after coming off the ice Tuesday morning. “I’m very passionate.”

He professed reluctance to revisit the incident for reporters, but then went there himself.

During those junior days, eight years with the Quebec Remparts, Roy was a chronic offender, regularly dipping into his pocket to pay for fines levied as a result of his fiery temper and chronically intemperate — but always quote-worthy — remarks.

Article Continued Below

Let’s just say Roy could well afford it, having amassed a fortune during his nearly two-decade playing career estimated at around $83 million.

The incident on opening night at the Pepsi Centre, however, just might have been a wee bit contrived, as Roy re-introduced himself to the public and the hockey universe.

“I’m always going to be really calm when the game is one the line.”

That game wasn’t on the line, Colorado mere seconds from a 6-1 win — they’re now 2-0, heading into Tuesday night’s tilt against the Leafs — at which point Roy sent out a fourth-line that features two Avalanche enforcers, clearly to issue some payback for what the coach thought was an unnecessary knee-on-knee hit against his marquee rookie, Nathan MacKinnon, by Ben Lovejoy.

What Roy said after getting slapped with the fine, issued for “irresponsible actions” at the conclusion of that game: “I guess I have to change a few things. I understand it now. At the same time, I will always defend my players.”

And clearly they appreciated the coach having their back.

“I felt like a kid again,” admitted centre Matt Duchene, of watching the theatrics between Roy and Boudreau, when it looked very much like the former might climb over the glass to punch out the latter. This is a goalie, you may recall, who once traded blows with his opposite, Mike Vernon, during an on-ice melee.

“I felt like I was watching him fight Vernon back in the day.

“It was really funny. I had a hard time not laughing through that whole thing. Everybody was so serious and I was trying not to laugh.”

Every player got the sub-text message.

“Pretty cool for the coach to have your back,” Duchene continues. “He was standing up for us and that was what we want to see in a coach.”

Moreover, Duchene added, just having a hockey legend of Roy’s stature in charge has made everybody walk a little bit taller, certainly no longer acting like the NHL punching bags.

“It’s a huge difference, just the feeling in the room. It’s just more of a winning feeling. We’ll all feel like it’s within our control, what happens, where before we didn’t really know what was going on sometimes.

“It’s still early and (Roy) is still making the transition. But he’s had a good start and we’re pulling for him, for sure.”

More from The Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com